Full disclosure, I’m creating a backlog of my contradictions, but they’re still pertinent and relevant as ever. The hidden ongoing #0 Contradiction is, thinking, talking, and trying to start this substack for several years… creating it in August 2025, and in January 2026 finally writing the first one. Insert eek eek eek - here we go!
So #contradictions, contradiction #1, she writes so confidently listening to Florence + The Machine on full volume. She (homosexuals tend to use this pronoun for appreciative sass), and I’ll deal with the hearing aid when it comes in several decades.
Purpose vs. Paycheck. Something, I feel we all deal with. Below was my musing 8 months ago, which I feel I’ve now manage to not necessary solve, but “draw my systemic boundary” around ~ follow and stay up-to-date for my drops of advisory wisdom.
8 months ago… (scroll past waterfall selfie for actual content)
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“🤘🏽I’m now a solo agent, who left Bain to help f*ck up the system… but I’ve got a mortgage, and two cats - who demand high-quality meals & luxury toys.
Since coming back from a wild, grounding trip through South America, one contradiction’s been ringing loud:
1️⃣ How do I stay aligned with purpose — while making good money to tie me over?
🫂 I know I’m not alone in this. Most founders I work with are building something meaningful - but behind the pitch decks and investor calls is a real question:
“Can I make this work without selling my soul?”
❤️🔥 This month, I’ve started working with two incredible founders to align their spiritual purpose with strategic power - and tackle real structural pain points (like go-to-market chaos and investor tension).
🧠 This is the first in a new weekly series:
Contradictions: Capital, Chaos, & Culture.
Raw. Unresolved. Useful. (I hope).
📬 Curious about working together?
~ I’ve got space for a couple more aligned founders this quarter.
~ No fluffy mass coaching.
~ No poachy advisory-for-equity games.
~ Just practical, powerful Coaching & Consulting for the Curious.
~ 🛝 in those DMs.”
8 months later? Of the back of this post I started working with a founder tackling the real contradictions of health data, wellness, and mental clarity… 8 months later we’ve renewed our contract, and another renewal is imminent.
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SO, how do we balance purpose and payment?
In our current system, wages for time and skillset is the grounding nature for the majority of the working population.
Do alternatives exist? Sure, but implementing them is a different story.
1. Solidarity Logic ~ commons-based / gift economy
Core claim: value isn’t primarily a commmodity. It’s a relationship.
People contribute because they belong, care, and share responsiblity.
Distribution happens through mutual aid, reciprocity, and communal norms, not price.
Community kitchens? Open-source? Community land trusts? Cooperative care?
✅ Creates belonging, resilience, anti-market society based ethics.
⚠️ Creates informal coercion, “who contributes more” dynamics.
2. Citizenship Logic ~ universal basic income
Core claim: existence entitles you to survival - income is a right, not earned.
Detached survival from labour entirely.
Markets can exist, but the concept of work-to-live is removed.
✅ Creates freedom, experimentation, bargaining power.
⚠️ Creates a patch for capitalism, not true transformation of systems.
3. Post-Scarcity Logic ~ post-work / automation divident
Core claim: the wage system is historically specific, it is not sacred.
If machines produce most value, labour should stop being central.
This means…
a shorter working week,
public ownership of automation,
large-scale leisure/culture/care as the “real economy”,
income via automation dividend, not jobs.
✅ Creates long-term horizon, an AI future, dignity beyond productivity.
⚠️ Creates need for massive redistribution, cultural shift: “no work = worth”.
There are a few more classic ones I could get into… e.g. market socialism and cooperatives (democracy logic), or collective ownership (property logic)… but I will pause for now.
Is purpose vs. paycheck a contradiction resolvable in our current economic system?
How can we test alternatives?
Thriving while Burning (TWB) is the opposite of perfection, what’s your approach to TWB with #1 contradiction?